Steve Crow
Forum Replies Created
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Ahhh Jordan, thanks I just reread what I posted earlier and what I meant was actually shutter speed not so much frame rate…it’s easy to get those confused when my fingers are typing faster than my mind is thinkin’ !
Shooting higher frame rates is something I usually equate to creating slow motion when bringing 60p content into a 24p timeline but movies like Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” use it to achieve a hyper real look that is often criticized as being less cinematic and looking more like “video” – almost “too real”
The Digital Projector company Christie had a great explanation on their web site on the visual impact of high frame rate: “High frame rate (HFR) movies record and play visuals at twice the rate or higher of what’s seen in today’s cinemas. As a result, viewers see less flicker, motion blur and stuttered movement. The improvements to 3D movies are dramatic – creating ultra-realistic moviegoing experiences.”
On second thought, high SHUTTER speeds in video are also associated with a more “staccato” (less motion blur or “smoothness” to the image flow – so maybe in some ways the visual look of high shutter speeds and high frame rates is somewhat similar after all.
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com -
Oh you said Sandisk which is normally an excellent brand.
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com -
AFTER you get the data off the card, I would reformat it in camera and then do some test shots just to make sure the card seems to be OK. Bottom line, however, I would always be suspicious of that particular card and it might just be safest to throw it away and get a new card.
I still suspect that something or other happened while filming that resulted in corrupting the data. Another possibility was that the camera overheated and aborted its filming mid clip resulting in corruption but if you were closely monitoring the camera while filming something like that would be pretty obvious and hard to miss so I don’t know.
Firmware problems are not that likely because then it should be every clip you have ever recorded with that version of the firmware would have been impacted. It wouldn’t hurt to update the firmware but the real problem is something else….you are just going to have to test, test test with a new card to make sure the camera is operating properly – if it is, then it could be the card. A certain percentage of storage cards will fail…in fact there was a new story a few weeks ago about a whole batch of bad cards from one of the major manufacturers just being totally garbage. If you purchased the card that failed at an exceptionally low price, some unscrupulous business people have been known to sell cards that didn’t pass the manufacturers quality control test and there’s very few ways to know since it comes in all the right packaging and everything.
Oh, what was the specific brand and “model” of the card you were using? For video you have to use at least a “Class 6” card which by today’s standards are not actually super fast but are more than workable. I have had good luck with cards from Transcend:
https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Class-Flash-Memory-TS16GSDHC10E/dp/B003VNKNEQ
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com -
Not having an external mic jack is a problem that can be worked around. You’ll have to rely on the built in mic which frankly is terrible but it could be good enough in most cases to sync another higher quality audio source to it just as you mentioned. Having a mic jack would simply give you the ability to greatly improve the sound quality captured within the camera giving you a better source to sync to but you would probably still record on another device (like the Zoom H4N or similar) anyways your “real” audio.
Your first camera is really just to teach you how to film in manual mode, understanding exposure and composition and how to work with pictures and audio together. Don’t worry about picture too much….in fact sound is much more important than pictures. Did you know that the people most in demand on professional productions are the women and men capturing and editing sound???
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com -
Cool Rob I will go check it out now
Thanks!
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com -
Actually something more like this but used not new:
is what I’m thinking….but again you can wait a few months, save up some additional money, and that will give you some expanded options as I know you are on a tight budget right now
Steve
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com -
I would recommend getting a USED DSLR and not a camcorder due to lack of full manual controls and other issues Your budget is very tight so I would say wait until your second or third semester to buy a camera, you probably won’t be filming much at all at the start anyways as your classes will be concentrating more on theory and history before getting hugely into camera operation
Check out the Canon Rebel Series (T2i to T5i) but the brand doesn’t matter as much so long as it has full manual control in video mode (shutter speed, aperture, iso), detachable lenses and an option to attach an external microphone. So long as you have those features most everything else can be worked around. The school will no doubt have cameras for you to use but it would be a great aid to your learning the basics of capturing image with sound to have some limited gear of your own.
I would buy just the body and then get a used 50mm lens separately – the “kit” lens that comes with entry level cameras are going to be challenging. For instance, as you zoom in you will find the image getting darker. (technically you could make adjustments to your camera settings to compensate but it’s best just to avoid the problem in the first place if you have the option) With a 50mm lens, it won’t have zoom besides your feet but you won’t have to deal with the darkening image issue
I wouldn’t go with the GE model just because it’s not a brand any one else is likely to have so finding specific help on it will be very challenging indeed.
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com -
Well, it doesn’t look good put it that way but let’s see.
A couple of questions – if you keep the card in camera and try to review or play back the video, is it just the one that plays back?
Another question – for the five .mo4 files does your computer show the file has a size that you would expect for HD video?
Did you by any chance let the camera continue shooting video until it ran up against the 12 min/file size limit and aborted itself? Were there any battery problems?
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com -
Sorry for the confusion
My first reply was incorrect so I posted another better answer but the first one wasn’t deletedI can adjust the levels via the zoom but I can’t inside my older Canon T2i – for that I would need magic lantern
mL is quite safe. Don’t be afraid to install it Thousands of users have done so without issue and it is a simple matter to remove
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com -
I normally use the Zoom H4N as an external recorder that lets me also monitor the sound it is recording. Of course, this does require syncing in post which you said you didn’t want to do. For a recent event shoot (a 5K race) I did something a small bit different.
Basically what I did was to feed the Zoom’s output to the camera while at the same time monitoring the sound going into the camera instead of my normal procedure of monitoring the sound that is being recorded by the Zoom
I used this cable
https://www.amazon.com/Sescom-LN2MIC-ZMH4-MON-Attenuation-Headphone-Monitoring/dp/B004VIOZSK
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com